For us culinary challenged people, finding recipes that work for us and that we can use over and over again is more difficult than it may seem.
See once you enter your mid-twenties, your days of living off of PB&J, or frozen pizza’s, are limited. You instantly feel a little gross after and you crave real food. Which in turn requires some skill in the kitchen, which then requires you have a feel for what ingredients work well with others and it turns into this big intimidating mess.
So at one point I was making breakfast and lunch everyday for my dad and Jay to take to work. Obviously this was exhausting so the food would get worse and worse. Jay had come up with the idea of us using a slow-cooker so I can just throw it on in the morning and I won’t have to worry about cooking after work. My objection was that it would be a waste of a lot of food if I didn’t put the right things in and it sucked.
Well on a stroll through whole foods, we recently discovered Frontera cooking sauces and I think I can say it changed my life.
They say perfect for tacos – I don’t know why because who the hell is going to wait to slow cook some taco meat – but they’re perfect for everything else.
I didn’t like the chicken one. The Pork Carnitas were good. Our all time favorite has been the Barbacoa sauce. Best part is – the directions are on the back of the packet. You can make this in a dutch oven for a quicker cook time or you can put in the slow cooker and forget about it. I’ve tried it both ways and it’s amazing either way.
What you need is 1 ½ to 2 pounds of beef brisket. Chop it into big chunks to make it easier. In a skillet, over medium heat, heat up a 2 tsp of Olive oil, add the beef chunks and cook them until they are slightly brown on all sides then add into your slow cooker. Cut a medium red onion into thick slices. Do the same with your choice of bell pepper. Throw it in there. Cover it with the sauce. Stir everything so that it’s equally coated then set on low for 8 hours and forget about it.
Side Note: I also like to add a little more hot sauce or chili powder. I like things to have a little kick but that’s totally up to you.
Once it’s done just shred the meat with a fork. It should come apart super easily at that point. Then all you have to do at the end of the day is make some rice and you’ll have at the VERY least 6 servings to pack away for lunches.
I didn’t think I’d like the slow cooker as much as I do but it’s literally a lifesaver to have one less thing to think about!
Let me know if you give this a try or if you have any slow cooker recipes you’d recommend! 🙂
